Back to our (semi) regular snuffle through the Pagan blogosphere to see what I found interesting this week:

Nimue at Druid Life writes about Food and Identity, the link between what we eat and who we are, which I found a useful reflection on my own identity as a vegetarian, though not always as healthy an eater as I should like:

“What we eat is part of our sense of self. For anyone who has made a significant food choice either to protect their health, for religious reasons or for environmental ones tends to feel very invested in that food identity. Food choices can play a big part in your cultural identity and may inform who you spend time with.”

Beith at Anima Monday has a fascinating, thoughtful dive into The Animism of Stories. Are stories themselves, in some sense, alive?

“What you must understand is that the notions you have about the nature of reality are really quite limited. You tend to see only those things you can touch personally as being real. That is forgetting about everything else.

A story is a reality. It is a world. And once a world is created, it starts to live and evolve, even without conscious human interaction. It will be a fountain that other storytellers can dip into to enrich their understanding of the story. The more often this happens, the more the basic structure of the story-world gets consolidated and the more energy there is left to create the details and the persons within it.”

Abfalter at The Weekly Druid has a post looking at celebrations of diversity and sexuality at Beltane and LGBT+ Pride, called Apple Trees are Queer:

“This is the very essence of what we celebrate at Beltane: that the myriads of species in Nature sing their own song of uniting with each other to bring forth fruit — and they certainly don’t need us humans attributing any gender and other questionable distinctions to them. And if we see ourselves not as the center of this Magic, but as humble observants, we surely should all be able to celebrate that particular fire festival together, without excluding anyone, and also without feeling excluded. All we need to do is to be explicit about what it is we actually are celebrating: the queer way of Nature procreating.”

And finally, Clio Ajana writes at the Wild Hunt about the need for all of us in the Pagan community, and in the LGBT+ community, to stand with each other and support each other: Stand by Me.

As we make the daily choice to acknowledge who we are, we become stronger. No matter where we are, we can make it when we stand by each other…

…For this Pride month, and all the ones that follow until full equality is reached, we must acknowledge that the injustices faced by trans people are injustices to every one of us. When one suffers, we all do. When laws are not in place to guarantee that access to quality living is for all, then we lose as a society. Each day that we choose to be allies to ourselves and for each other is a day when we stand by each other.

We choose our neighborhoods. We choose our flags. We choose to live proudly. And we are not going anywhere.”